Broadcast tonight on TF1, Without Identity is an opportunity for Liam Neeson to illustrate himself once again in a muscular register, about which the actor holds contradictory remarks. So, Liam Neeson and the action, stop or else?
Released in 2011, Without Identity marked the first collaboration between director Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson. They will work together again on 3 other muscular films: Non-Stop, Night Run and The Passenger.
FROM SCHINDLER'S LIST TO TAKEN
If action cinema rhymes with Liam Neeson today, it has not always been so. The Irish actor was more associated with dramatic feature films, such as Schindler's List, Michael Collins or Gangs of New York, but did not rule out forays into blockbusters such as the Star Wars prelogy and Batman Begins. But it was the EuropaCorp Taken production that marked a radical turning point in his career in 2008. Pierre Morel's film, in which Neeson is a father who tracks down his daughter's kidnappers, is a hit: with a budget of $ 25 million, it brings in more than $ 226 million and is the originator two suites and a television series.
StudioCanal
At 56 years old, it is a new career which begins for Liam Neeson, who since then regularly endorses the figure of the solitary hero ready to fight. In addition to his prolific duet with Collet-Serra, he appeared during the following decade in Le Territoire des loups, Balade entre les tombes and Sang Froid. In a more fun and uninhibited register, we also meet him in the adaptation of The All Risks Agency, where he takes on the role of Hannibal.
LIAM NEESON, NEW KING OF ACTION
A turn of which the actor is fully aware, as he explains in the Guardian : " [...] my image has radically changed in people's minds. And especially Hollywood producers. The Taken changed everything, I wasn't the one who claimed these roles. After the first movie, I got loads of cool action movie scripts, that's flattering. But I know that there will be a limit to these successes ".
In this same interview published in 2015, he announced that he would give himself two years before stopping action films because of his age: "If I feel that the public is saying 'Come on, he's 62, that's too much', I would be very sensitive to that. If I noticed this feeling in people, then I would stop right away. And I would start playing fathers or grandfathers. But I continue to talk and my knees are fine. And then it's fun to make action films ".
The Passenger: Liam Neeson has "blind professional confidence" in Jaume Collet-Serra
Two years later, at the premiere of The Secret Man - Mark Felt, Liam Neeson said he was not ready to hang up the gloves: "You speak in the past tense. I'll keep making action movies until I'm buried. I'm coming out of retirement! " A decision still relevant since it was on view on October 14 of The Good Criminal. He plays a legendary bank robber trapped and chased by the police and the FBI, who decides to embark on an explosive revenge. And it's not over ! We will find Liam Neeson on February 17, 2021 in a new action film called The Veteran.
NO RETIREMENT FOR VETERAN NEESON
The story follows a mother and her son, pursued by members of a Mexican cartel. They cross the border between Mexico and Arizona and find themselves on the land of Jim Hanson. Embittered and aging, he traditionally denounces illegal immigrants to the authorities. But when the mother is killed in a shootout, the recalcitrant American decides to help young Miguel escape. The widowed and disillusioned war veteran and the orphan boy will have to cross the United States, pursued by criminals and corrupt police officers. At 68, the actor proves that he still has some under the pedal and intends to break a few necks and knock out bad guy with all his might!
And he is not ready to retire! The actor is currently filming The Ice Road with Laurence Fishburne. The latter camps Goldenrod, the owner of a road transport company. He hires the driver, Mike (Neeson), to accompany him on a dangerous mission. They must come to the aid of miners trapped in the far north of Canada. They can't help finding them other than driving across a frozen ocean. After that, the comedian will be directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) in Memory, an action thriller, remake of the Belgian film The memory of the killer.
Neeson will also star in Retribution, a thriller directed by Predators director Nimrod Antal. This is the remake of Appel Inconnu, a Spanish film released in 2016. The story follows a businessman who discovers that a bomb has been placed in his car by an unknown assailant. The latter orders him to perform a series of actions throughout the day or the bomb will explode ... killing him and his family.
THE VETERAN TRAILER
